Cuphead Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

2. Phenomenal Boss Design

Before the game was delayed and its production was rejigged to include a number of more standard platforming levels, Cuphead was designed to be a boss rush - literally a game where you go boss to boss with little in between, rather like The Game Bakers' immaculate actioner, Furi.

Thankfully, with boss battles being Cuphead's bread n' butter, they're all simply phenomenal. Ginormous perfectly-animated concoctions of devilish smiles and energy blasts, you'll battle everything from a sentient confectionery-conjuring witch to a stressed out bird who coughs eggs at you.

Each one is immediately memorable thanks to such emotive facial expressions and attack patterns - ones that will take you a good half hour or so of memorisation before you can duck, weave and strike to victory. Across my time with the game I can only recall one that was just a little bit weak (a bullet hell robot that covered the screen in energy orbs), yet the majority - from a mind bolt-throwing carrot to a fang-toothed pirate ship - are simply brilliant.